The 2011 Bach Marathon at Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church featured approximately 12-and-a-half hours of music by everyone from some of the top musicians in Lexington to children getting some of their first shots at the stage. This was the sixth annual edition of the event directed by Clif Cason and presented by the American Guild of Organists and the church.
Click here to see the complete gallery at and purchase prints at SmugMug.
Saturday is about the only annual Lexington arts event I can be unabashedly promotional about, The Bach Marathon. Its 6th edition is 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. March 26 at Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church (where I attend) and is directed by Clif Cason (who I work for most Sundays – journalistic conflict of interest clear enough?). So, for the second year in a row, I’ll be working the sound board and taking photos of the event, which features serious musicians at all levels playing what is a stunningly small portion of Johann Sebastian’s work, when you consider the breadth of his work (Clif owns the item contained in the link).
So, in anticipation of Bach Marathon 2011, I thought I’d post a little slide show from last year.
See a complete gallery from the 2010 Bach Marathon and purchase prints from SmugMug.
Katee Holznagel as Catherine and Randy Hall as Dr. Cukrowicz in "Suddenly, Last Summer" at Studio Players. Nikon D300s, Nikkor 80-200 f2.8 lens; ISO 1600, 1/250 sec, f2.8. © Photo for the Lexington Herald-Leader.
A year or so I go, I realized I was in the midst of a wide-angle hangup. My 17-35 mm lens lived on my camera and everything I was shooting was as wide as my stomach – trying to work on that; it is Lent. Wide angles certainly have their place, and I always search for the elements that make truly great wide angle shots. But it was clear to me I needed to get back in touch with telephoto, and the drama I loved about that.
Clif Cason conducts. Nikon D80, Tamron 70-200, f 2.8 lens; ISO 400, 1/200 sec, f4, two Nikon flashes bounced off ceiling.
This week told me I got there.
I actually used quite a bit of wide angle at the above shoot, a rehearsal of Suddenly, Last Summer at Studio Players, a venue I love to shoot in because they usually have first-rate community theater sets and costumes. I was doing quite a bit of wide shooting from the front row but had my 80-200 on the camera when this moment happened. Coquettish Catherine was in the midst of a negotiation of sorts with Dr. Cukrowicz, and to me this frame shows that he was tuned into her feminine wiles. Acting!
The shot to the left is choir director Clif Cason in a different way than most of us who know him see him at work, which is with his back to us – that’s how we see a lot of conductors. I not only liked the telephoto giving a hard close up of him, I liked the way the blue – that’s just a bulletin board behind him – served as an unintended backdrop. Most of all, I like seeing the passion for the music in this moment.
Proud Grandpa. Nikon D80, 70-200 mm Tamron Lens; 1600 ISO, 1/200 sec, f 2.8.
My favorite of the week happened very early in the week, read the first 11 hours of last week. To me, it epitomizes the most treasured kind of shot in in photography: I captured that moment.
Rob Schrader. Nikon D80, Tamrom 70-200 lens, one flash camera right fired into a beauty dish, one camera left into a 32-inch reflective umbrella; ISO 100, 1/200 sec, f 4.
In this case, it was a baptism at my church with the grandfather of the baby performing the baptism. I will just let grandpa’s facial expression speak.
My other favorite makes me laugh at myself. In a session with Rob Schrader – a young man you may someday hear mentioned with other great theatrical Robs, like De Niro and Redford – I initially said subjects for headshots like this generally look better standing, to get him on his feet. Ha! It was when we go him seated that the tension went away and he gave us this look.
Newsong frontman Russ Lee performs at Winter Jam 2011 in Rupp Arena. Nikon D80, Tamron 28-75 mm lens; ISO 1600, 1/250 sec, f 2.8.
The last time I shot a show at Rupp Arena, I came away really unhappy with my work. When I took a little time to assess that shoot, January’s Nightmare After Christmas tour featuring Avenged Sevenfold, I figured out the main problem: I was running around trying to keep up with the bands.
Newsboys' lead singer Michael Tait performed on the catwalk on the Winter Jam stage in Rupp Arena. Nikon D80, Nikkor 17-35 mm lens; ISO 1600, 1/200 sec, f 2.8.
Now don’t get me wrong. I know photographers should be moving around and trying to see what they are shooting from different angles with different glass. But there’s a difference between that and trying to keep up with M. Shadows as he sprints around the stage and trying to get a good shot. The former is a recipe for just missing a lot of shots – and probably annoying your fellow photographers in the pit. With a highly mobile act, a better strategy is to find a spot and let the show come to you – it will. That’s not to say spend all of a song allotment anchored to one spot. But if you find a good spot to plant and compose for a verse or two, chances are something will happen like the guitar and bass player stepping in front of your midrange zoom and jamming, and maybe a few other things will transpire before you go look for a new angle.
Funny thing is, I often find it’s the sedate stand-and-sing acts that make me hustle more because they aren’t offering a whole lot of different looks, so I need to find them.
So Saturday night I went to shoot the Winter Jam Christian rock tour – very different night from Avenged – at Rupp with the words “wait for it” etched upon my brain. I did, and right off the bat, I got some shots I really liked of Newsong frontman Russ Lee. At the end of the night, I hung at the end of the catwalk, waiting for Newsboys frontman Michael Tait to come my way, which he did, again and again.
